Somewhere Awesome
by webcomix
Summary: One afternoon, Francis stumbles across the last thing he expects to see. Prequel spin-off of World Wide Story, meaning fem!Prussia. Rated for mouth. One-shot.


**A/N: Today I finished and handed in something that was definitely one of the biggest deadlines of the term, so I'm celebrating by posting this up! Now I'm off to take a nice long nap…**

**Axis Powers Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya.**

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Francis raced down the hall.

"Kim, Kimmy, mon amour…where are you going?"

He reached out and tried to snatch at the flash of green ahead of him. Kim skidded to a halt a few paces ahead.

"Tired already?" she teased. Francis paused to lean against a locker, panting. But he grinned back, relishing the challenge. His girlfriend-of-the-month-or-so still looked quite pretty, even when she was sweaty and dirty in her volleyball uniform. When she reached down to tug at her knee high socks, her black ponytail slipped off her shoulder to dangle invitingly towards the ground. Francis walked forward as she straightened up.

"Just looking at you makes me feel weak," he whispered. Though she raised an eyebrow at the cheesy remark, he saw her lips twist up into a smile as he moved closer to bury his face into the sleek, dark hair, to cover her cheeks in tiny kisses so he could taste her sweat, that blunt realness that captivated him so much…

"Excuse me!"

The sharp tone of voice caused the two teenagers to jerk away from each other. Turning around, Francis recognized one of the strictest teachers at Hetalia High, Mrs. Tackett.

He quickly slapped on his most charming expression. "Just saying goodbye, ma'am. Not staying for long. I just need to pick up my bag from my locker and we'll be gone."

She narrowed his eyes at him, but nodded. "Fine. But remember, any public display of affection is clearly marked within the student handbook as punishable by detention. This includes you too, Ms. Nguyen."

"Got it. Thanks, Mrs. Tackett." Francis placed one hand on Kim's waist and began steering her away towards the door.

"Mr. Bonnefoy, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't your locker on the east side of the building?"

Damn. Caught. Francis stepped back, sighing ruefully. Kim glanced over her shoulder, amusement shining through her brown eyes.

"I'll wait out front, then?"

"Yeah, it won't be long." Shooting another winning smile back at the disapproving math teacher, Francis trotted down the hallway where he had come earlier. In a few minutes, he finally got to the senior lockers. Having no time to lose, he twirled the combination expertly and retrieved his book bag. Feeling his heart lighten at the thought of one beautiful Vietnamese girl waiting outside in the crisp autumn air, he allowed himself to slam the locker door to convey his satisfaction.

_WHAM._

_Eep!_

Francis froze. After a second or so, he quickly looked around. The hallway was completely deserted, as he thought. Quietly, he picked up his book bag, still listening carefully. Tiny gulps and gasps seemed to be coming from his right…following the noise, he came to an open classroom door. Somebody was obviously inside, crying. He peered in, curious to see who it was.

The classroom was also empty, with the bright October sun pouring in through the large windows. Empty except for one figure scrunched up into a ball next to the golden beams of light, narrowly missing it by a hair's breadth. Her silvery hair cascaded over her back, some strands dripping over to cover the arms that were wrapped tightly around her legs.

"…Gilly?"

At the sound of her name, the girl bolted up and grabbed the nearest thing – a ruler – and was about to hurl it in his direction before she finally recognized the intruder. Francis was utterly shocked to see such fear and desperation in his friend's eyes in that one moment. Gillian dropped the ruler and leaned back onto the bookcase with a groan.

Francis wordlessly dropped his bag and walked over to her, enveloping the tired body in a close hug. After a few seconds of being held so lovingly, Gillian finally spoke.

"S…s-so," she choked, taking in a shuddering breath. "Mr., Mr. Embling, that fuckin' bastard, told me to stay after class. He's such an asshole. I hate him. I WAS totally cool with it, like, hey, what's up? Is it my grades? Fuck yeah, it's your grades, he says."

Francis waited, bringing up one hand to gently stroke her hair as Gillian shifted in his arms, still croaking out her story. "So I'm like, okay. Fine. What do I need to do. And he just, he -" The girl swallowed again. "He just goes, I don't think you can DO anything about it. I've been teaching for nine years…" Gillian rolled her teary eyes and Francis let her rest her head against his chest. "…and I've never, eeeeever met such a hopeless case such as you, Gillian Beilschmidt."

She squeaked angrily, sitting up a little. "He didn't say it exactly those words, but I knew what he meant. Well, I'm all FUCK YOU, too bad you don't recognize awesome when it's right in front of you, ya dumb fuck. And he goes, oh, it's not just me. I've discussed this with a few of your other teachers and we don't think that you'll be able to be accepted to a good university at this rate."

The tears, which she had been doing a wonderful job of holding back, finally began to find a path down her cheeks. "Then basically, he just said awwww, Gilly honey, you're really stupid and we're okaaaay with that as long as you're GOOOD for the rest of the year, and then we'll give you a fuckin' gold star and let you graduate because we want you THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!" A real sob erupted from her chest this time.

"The part I don't really get is, is…" Francis hugged her tightly, gently wiping the salty liquid off her cheeks and chin, as if he was taking care of a very small child. "…I'm not really BAD or anything. It's a dumb name some other asshole of a teacher came up with when we were like, what. Eleven? Things just get boring, and I want my life to be better than following all the rules and living up to stupid expectations…"

Exhaustion suddenly took hold of her again and she seemed to deflate, falling back onto Francis, allowing him to continue comforting her. "I dunno anymore. My parents stopped asking a long time ago, but now even Ludwig is all like, what are you gonna do with your life, are you making any plans, where are you gonna go after this is done…I dunno. That's all I can say. I dunno. Well, somewhere awesome where I can finally be my own awesome self. But where the fuck is that supposed to be, right? Nowhere."

By this point, Gillian had run out of things to say, and simply stared off into space glumly. Francis took her pause to finally speak up.

"Mmm…there's got to be somewhere. Don't worry, Gilly." He gave her hair another gentle ruffle. "We'll find it."

She snorted. "Yeah. After you run off to uni and Tonio goes to the farm and I'm just stuck. Here. Wherever."

"Nope."

"No what?"

"I'm not going."

"What?" Gillian sat up and twisted around to face him, frowning slightly. "To uni?"

"Yeah."

"…Why the hell not?"

Francis shrugged. "Don't feel ready for it yet. I want to kick back and do some exploring or something first. You should come."

"What about 'Tonio? He won't be able to afford it."

"Yeah…I know. We'll figure something out. It's months away. There's time to think."

"Okay. Deal." She finally wriggled out of his grasp. "What are you doing so late here anyway?"

"Kim had practice, and I…Shit." Francis looked at his watch. Almost 5:45. "I forgot all about her."

"Well, then go," Gillian shoved him towards the door.

Francis didn't need any more prodding. With one more hasty squeeze around Gillian's shoulders, he snatched up his book bag and darted around the halls until he burst out of the front doors. Kim was perched on the stair railing, mp3 player plugged into her ears. She pulled one out as he approached.

"That took a while."

"Yeah, bumped into someone. Sorry."

Kim shot him a suspicious look. He couldn't blame her; his love life's reputation definitely preceded him. But thankfully, she allowed him to take her hand as they left the grounds. Francis nonchalantly adjusted his jacket to hide the damp spot on his shirt.

"So, where do you want to go today?…"

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**A/N: In my opinion, romance cannot even**_** fathom**_** holding a candle to true friendship.**


End file.
